We told you earlier that a one click root method was available for the Amazon Kindle Fire. We also explained some of the pros cons and reasons for rooting.
Amazon have since stepped up and released the source code for the highly customised version of Android. I previously stated that the Android version on the Kindle Fire was Android 2.3 Gingerbread, but it turns out it is a customised version of FroYo – Android 2.2.
The source code that Amazon has released will help allow developers to make custom ROMs for the Kindle Fire. Amazon have, however, not released all of their secrets, as there is only certain parts of the code that need to be made open source to stay within the GPL rules.
It will be interesting to see how much hackers are able to optimize their Kindle Fire tablets. What developers will need to remember is that there will need to be a balance between the highly integrated Amazon services and the modifications that are made. There are already rumours that rooting the device will put paid some video streaming services from Amazon.
Amazon releasing the source code so fast is more than likely a gesture of goodwill, but it does not mean that Amazon need to make it easy to modify the device.
As the device has already been rooted, having a quick look through forums and threads, it seems like Google apps, gmail, maps and reader are all working on the Fire, but the stock Android Market is still not working.
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